Current avionics graphical display systems often suffer from difficulties in format selection, which is often cumbersome and unintuitive. In addition, current practices often result in unanticipated display configurations. Unexpected display configurations often result from format limitations and format stealing logic, among other factors. The various factors combine to create a complex and difficult to implement format selection process. As such, it is desirable to provide an intuitive and simplified method for display format selection, which allows for quick and straightforward display selection and configuration.